4MK Archives - Gary David Gillen

Sixth Wicked Child by JD Barker

Sixth Wicked Child by JD Barker, 4MK Thriller Book #3.

Introduction

In the Sixth Wicked Child by JD Barker, the hunt for Anson Bishop the Four Monkey Killer heats up. They have implicated suspended Chicago Metro detective Sam Porter in the case and he remains in custody in a Metro interview room. Detective Brian Nash and FBI Special Agent Frank Poole continue the investigation. They quarantined detective Claire Norton in a hospital under a SARS scare. Porter thinks he is the only one who can understand the writer of the diaries. Can Sam Porter find the answers to the 4MK’s motivations in the Diaries and catch the killer?

Summary

The Sixth Wicked Child by JD Barker starts with another murder victim discovered. The four viewpoint characters are affected by the aftermath of the conclusion of the previous novel of the trilogy, The Fifth to Die.

FBI Special Agent Frank Poole entered the case after they discovered the original crime scene in South Carolina. The case took him to New Orleans and now he is back in Chicago after they discovered Porter in a compromising position set up by Bishop. He believes Porter is not telling him something, but can’t get through to him. He seeks Nash’s help because Nash might get through to Porter.

Chicago Metro detective Brian Nash is the lead investigator of the 4MK case for Metro. He interfaces with Poole. Nash thinks Porter is a good cop but is acting differently since he got deep into the 4MK case. He thinks he can get through to Porter. He is worried about Claire and Kloz, who are in quarantine at the hospital.

Summary Continued

Chicago Metro detective Claire Norton is under quarantine in the hospital because of a SARS scare instigated by Bishop. Chicago Metro IT guy Edwin Klozowski (aka Kloz) helps her at the hospital. They gathered all of Bishop’s potential victims at the hospital. Bishop threatens to release more SARS unless they cure his friend Paul Upchurch. Claire must juggle all those balls while facing the potential of getting sick herself.

Suspended Chicago Metro detective Sam Porter is in custody at Metro pending his involvement in a murder at the end of the previous novel. He has been investigating the 4MK case since the beginning and is deeply involved in Anson Bishop’s plots. There is a question of the depth of his involvement. Porter has been reading Bishop’s diaries all along. He thinks he can sort the fact from the fiction and learn the motives and a way to catch Bishop if he reads the last diaries left by Bishop at the crime scene where they found Porter.

Recommendation

The Sixth Wicked Child by JD Barker concludes the 4MK Thriller trilogy. This novel is a surprising and fitting conclusion to the story. The best things about the trilogy are the complicated antagonist Anson Bishop, the deep mysteries contained within the diary chapters, and the flawed protagonist Sam Porter. I’m glad I went on this trip with them. As 4MK says; Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil, and Do no evil.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Sixth Wicked Child by JD Barker, 4MK Thriller Book #3.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49667585-the-sixth-wicked-child

Book Review of the Fifth to Die by JD Barker. Detective Sam Porter searches for the serial killer’s mother, the source of the killer’s deviant behavior.

Fifth to Die by JD Barker

This is the link to my review of The Fourth Monkey by JD Barker, 4MK Thriller Book #1

Detective Sam Porter is on the trail of the Four Monkey Killer. See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil, Do no evil. An eye, an ear, a tongue, and a body. Will he find the killer’s latest victim before it’s too late? Read and find out.

The Fourth Monkey by J. D. Barker

Fifth to Die by JD Barker

The Fifth to Die by JD Barker.

The Fifth to Die by JD Barker, 4MK Thriller Book #2.

Introduction

In the Fifth to Die by JD Barker, the hunt for Anson Bishop the Four Monkey Killer has gone cold. The rest of Metro Chicago detectives of Sam Porter’s group are investigating other murders. They find a girl frozen under a lagoon and Porter’s fellow detectives and the FBI wonder if the 4MK has returned. Porter doesn’t think it is 4MK and searches for Bishop’s mother. His actions get him suspended. What will Sam Porter do when the answers he finds are more disturbing than he could have ever realized?

Summary

Fifth to Die by JD Barker starts with the Chicago Metro detectives investigating a murder of a girl found under the ice of a lagoon. There are multiple viewpoints in the novel with Porter as the main viewpoint. Sections of the novel end with a recap of the detective’s Evidence Board. The kidnapped girls have viewpoints to increase the reader’s tension until a viewpoint called The Man in the Black Knit Cap appears. Porter’s fellow detectives Clair Norton and Brian Nash also have viewpoint chapters as they investigate the recent murders. Edwin Klozowski (aka Kloz), the information tech guy helps them.

The recent murders have some similarities as the 4MK murders such as the actions of the murdered girl’s parents make them targets. But the differences in the cases lead Porter to conclude that 4MK is not the culprit. The FBI sends Special Agent Frank Poole to take over the investigation, and he has viewpoint chapters.

The plot splits when the captain suspends Sam Porter. Sam follows his lead about Anson Bishop’s mother that he discovered in the diary that Bishop gave him during the first novel. Detective Norton, Detective Nash, and Agent Poole follow their leads in the recent murders. The stories coincide until they are one step behind Porter. The solution goes back to Bishop’s diary. Porter finds out how and why Bishop ended up the way he did. A confrontation between Porter and Bishop ends this novel setting up the third and final novel of the trilogy.

Recommendation

Fifth to Die by JD Barker continues the 4MK story. It’s not clear at first how The Man in the Black Knit Cap and 4MKare connected, but that connection in time. I felt a juicy twist coming at the end of the novel, but Anson Bishop and his mother fooled me. Well done. The novel ends in a cliff hanger. The reader should treat books two and three as parts of one novel. I’m certain that the answers are coming in the next book and the answers will not be what I expect. That is an excellent thing. The Sixth Wicked Child is book three of the trilogy, published on August 27, 2019.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Fifth to Die by JD Barker, 4MK Thriller Book #2.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35721148-the-fifth-to-die

This is the link to my review The Fourth Monkey by JD Barker, 4MK Thriller Book #1

The Fourth Monkey by J. D. Barker

The Fourth Monkey by J. D. Barker

Fourth Monkey by JD Barker

4MK Thriller Book #1

Introduction

Homicide detective Sam Porter knew it was going to be a bad day when he woke up to a call about a suspicious death. An apparent suicide, the case turns when Sam finds a diary in the man’s pocket. The diary is from an uncaught serial killer that Sam has searched for in the past. As Sam investigates the suicide and studies the diary, he enters the mind of a killer. Will he crack the case or will he become the serial killer’s next victim?

Summary

The Four Monkey Killer has operated in Chicago for the past five years before this story takes place. The killer has claimed seven victims. Three boxes per victim. See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil, Do no evil. An eye, an ear, a tongue, and a body. Sam was assigned to the 4MK task force to catch the killer but they have not been able to. The apparent suicide is assumed to be the killer but Sam figures out that he was just another victim since the man holds box number one.

Sam follows up the clues on the victim’s body, the clues in the diary, and the clues discovered by the task force. The points of view of the novel alternate between Sam and the diary until a third viewpoint is introduced. Fifteen-year-old Emory Conners is the third viewpoint character who appears to be the killer’s next victim. The readers follow Sam as he learns who she is and tries to save her. The task force reconvenes including detective Claire Norton. They help Sam’s quest to catch the killer.

Conclusion

This is a great thriller. The novel moves fast following many false leads and containing many surprises. What I liked the most was the diary sections because it was a puzzle of how much to believe the killer. Is the killer an unreliable narrator, telling the truth, or somewhere in between? Read the novel to find out. I plan to read the next novel in the series, The Fifth to Die. It is scheduled to be released on July 10, 2018.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Fourth Monkey by JD Barker.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31125554-the-fourth-monkey

This is the link to my review of The Dead Key by DM Pulley, a similar book; combining mystery and thriller.

The Dead Key by D. M. Pulley